Tariff Shock and Fed Jitters: Asian Markets Stumble as Rally Meets Reality
Asian markets were mostly steady on Thursday as investors navigated mixed signals from central banks and awaited key U.S. data releases. Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.3% to 45,755, recovering from early losses abcnews.go.com. Optimism in Tokyo was underpinned by hopes that the Bank of Japan would maintain its ultra-easy policy: fresh data showed Tokyo consumer inflation at 2.5% in September, below forecasts abcnews.go.com. While still above the BoJ’s 2% target, the cooler-than-expected price rise eased pressure for immediate tightening. This spurred bets that the BoJ will hold off on rate hikes for now, weakening the yen and boosting exporter stocks investing.com investing.com. Japanese indexes remain near multi-decade highs on this dovish outlook investing.com.
